Cinnamon Coffee Cake

This is a recipe from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection. If I remember correctly, these cards were collected over time, arriving in the mail in installments. Each installment filled another section of my Aunt Hen's large plastic recipe box that she received with her subscription.

The recipe card has the year 1973 printed on it. It is no longer kept with all of the other recipes in a neatly organized file but belongs in a folder in my kitchen file drawer when it isn't thumbtacked to a cork board inside my kitchen cabinet, indicating that I have specific plans to make it. This card has been mine for almost 30 years now.

Like the dear bunny in "The Velveteen Rabbit", this card has grown shabby. It is stained and creased and worn. Time has turned it yellow and experience has spattered batter on the front picture and spilled something else, maybe vanilla, on the back. Still it is well loved, regarded and remembered. It holds the secret formula for a coffee cake we have consistently treasured in my family since the beginning. Perhaps in posting it here it can even become REAL. As the book says, "When you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter."

My family has used this cake with a few candles on top as a birthday cake, with a big nut baked inside as a King Cake and, for a while, we made it almost every Sunday, without variation, for an after church brunch. To newlyweds on a tight budget this coffee cake was a real treat. Warm out of the oven it is fragrant, soft and delicious. Later in the day it is a little firmer but still wonderful.

Last week my husband wanted a cake to share at work. Of course, this is the one he asked for. Cut into sixteen small pieces it was gone in an instant. Really, it's that good!

Sunday Special Coffee Cake
adapted slightly from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection

This coffee cake looks incredible! I love that the recipe card has grown shabby and worn with love--evidence of how great this cake is. Sorry that I've been an absent commenter; I just finished up my law school exams and am finally getting around to my google reader.

Anonymous - Thanks for your kind comment. I was up bright and early this morning making this coffee cake too. Today it was for my youngest son's birthday. He wouldn't say what kind of birthday cake he wanted but the men in my house always love this coffee cake!

Thanking for post this recipe. My mom got these cards when i was a kid and i always made this coffee cake. Years later the card got lost in a move. And I have been looking for the recipe for a long time.Glad i will be able to make it for my kids. Thanks